“...as Goliath Huntsmen often nest in pairs…”— Annwyn Online Bestiary.

Beyond the Village of Firestone, the territories of Rielle. Day 01.

Blood pooled around the woman’s ruined neck even as the rain slowly washed it away. It was the first time Nix had ever seen someone die in front of him. He hadn’t counted the goblins he and Saiph had killed earlier. They weren’t human. They were monsters. They didn’t matter. It was still just a game.

When this new nightstalker re-emerged from the water, rammed its spear into the chest of the man who had been beside the woman, and threw him aside like discarded trash, the reality of the situation had been pressed firmly into Nix’s mind. The people around him could be killed. He could be killed. This new reality was not a game.

Nix wasn’t sure how long he had stood there frozen, the sudden reminder of the mortality of himself and those around him locking him in place, but it was the sound of Saiph’s voice clear as day inside his head that pulled Nix back to the present.

Some time in the seconds, minutes, years, or however long Nix had stood there stunned, Saiph had moved to protect the guards from this newest threat. A ghostly green, semi transparent wall of bricks stood between his friend, the guards, and this new foe.

The first nightstalker had distracted itself by killing Nix’s flame vargr. It thrashed Skoll and Hati about with its front two spears, slamming Nix’s summon into the ground over and over in a fit of rage until all that remained was a pile of ash and coals that shifted from red to black as the rain extinguished their heat.

Saiph called out again, “Nix! This wall won’t hold for long! I need help with these things!”

“Yeah… Yeah, I’m on it,” Nix managed as the first nightstalker turned its attention on him. He dismissed one of his two life wisps and the light wisp and began casting. He’d need three of his summoning slots for what he was about to do.

Green mana fired from Nix’s staff into the ground in front of his feet as he hurriedly finished casting a summoning spell. The earth shook as the form of a massive, six-legged triceratops-like monster made of rock and stone heaved itself up from the ground.

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The earth golem lumbered towards the charging nightstalker, the red mana of its taunt spell pulsing from its body. The nightstalker reared up and let out a piercing cry in challenge.

Unperturbed by the spider’s show, the earth golem gored the spider through its abdomen with its three horns. A torrent of green blood and viscera spewed from the three holes left in the nightstalker’s body as the golem pulled away.

The nightstalker raked one of its spears across the golem’s body as it stumbled backwards. Large chunks of stone and earth fell away and the golem bellowed in pain. A quarter of the earth golem’s health was lost in that single hit. The life wisp flew over to the golem and began desperately trying to heal it.

The golem was only level fifty, it wouldn’t survive many more attacks like that even with the life wisp’s healing pulses. Nix could have summoned it at a higher level, but lasting long wasn’t the point. It was only a distraction to buy him time for the real showstopper.

Nix shouted words of power as he channeled mana into one of the many tattoos that covered his body. The runes began to glow a bright blue and his mana bar surged to seventy thousand.

Nix quickly activated another tattoo and the light surrounding him shifted from blue to a bright yellow tinged with streaks of purple. He began the incantation of another summoning spell, the words of power flying from his mouth at four times his normal casting speed. His mana pool instantly shrank a full three-quarters as he finished the incantation.

Nix fell to his knees, the headache from such an expenditure of mana causing an explosion of pain behind his eyeballs. As he dropped, Nix managed to slam his staff into the ground, finishing the summoning spell.

The staff rose into the air upon a platform of carved golden stone. It changed into a red and gold sword that looked to have been cut cleanly in half down its entire length; blade, grip, and all.

Golden light radiated from the sword’s grip and a set of black gloved fingers appeared around the leather-wrapped handle. The light continued to flow upward around the hand and arm, taking on the form of a woman with short, raven black hair and a tattered black pirate coat with dull, rusted green chainmail underneath. She pulled the sword from the stone and held it in a sure stance that dripped with confidence.

Captain Raine von Alder, once legendary pirate scourge of Navorinelle’s southern seas and now Nix’s level one hundred summoned Sword Princess, looked down at him, her expression hard as steel. The expression of someone begging for a fight.

“Kill that one, it’s almost dead, then help Saiph with the one beating on his wall.”

The swordswoman raised her sword and moved like lightning to meet her assigned target.

Raine’s blade clashed with the nightstalker’s twin spears, and Nix welcomed the endless black of mana-drained unconsciousness.